The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 7 letter word TOWPATH
I've seen this crossword clue in The Sunday Telegraph
T
O
W
P
A
T
H
More clues leading to the result TOWPATH
- Fibres a touch hard in place for horses
- What to put, initially mistakenly, in the way of the bank?
- Wife wearing top hat, oddly, for walk by river
- What post is replaced with no end of fuss as feature by canal?
- Wife in top hat bizarrely – it’s surely not seen alongside Panama
- Western Irishman enthralled by return of fashionable canal feature
- What to broadcast about opening of public walkway
- Wife in top hat, replacing husband, that runs along bank
- ‘Wife’ in Top Hat dancing in this way by canal
- Broken pot — what a typical canal feature
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "that runs along bank" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case that runs along bank = towpath.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.
What does TOWPATH mean?
TOWPATH noun- A path alongside a canal or river, originally for horses towing barges, now more often used as a footpath